Fukushima operator prepares for dangerous next step in clean-up

TONY EASTLEY: Within days, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant will begin what's being described as the 'most dangerous' phase so far of its decommissioning process.

In an operation never before attempted, TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) will begin removing more than 1,000 highly radioactive used fuel assemblies from a deep pool, which sits high above the ground in a shattered reactor building.

The pool contains ten times more radioactive caesium than was released at Chernobyl.

North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

MARK WILLACY: Its upper storeys were ripped apart in a massive explosion just days after the meltdowns, the blast tearing away the roof and walls of the reactor four building, leaving just twisted steel and exposing the reactor's nuclear fuel pool to the elements.

Experts around the world have been warning for two-and-a-half years that the fuel pool is in a precarious state - vulnerable to collapsing in another big earthquake.

CHARLES PERROW: This has me very scared.

MARK WILLACY: Yale University professor Charles Perrow wrote about the number four fuel pool this year in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

In an interview with the ABC, he said that one pool contains 10 times the amount of radioactive caesium-137 than Chernobyl, warning that one slip-up with the removal of this highly radioactive fuel could trigger a chain reaction.

CHARLES PERROW: Tokyo would have to be evacuated because of caesium and other poisons that are there will spread very rapidly. Even if the wind is blowing in the other way it's going to be monumental.

MARK WILLACY: It's taken the operator of the Fukushima plant, TEPCO, more than two-and-a-half years to clear away debris and get the number four reactor building ready for this delicate operation.

In an interview with the ABC, TEPCO's Yoshimi Hitosugi insisted the company's engineers are ready.

(Yoshimi Hitosugi speaking Japanese)

"We are going to transfer the fuel into containers while it's under water," says Mr Hitosugi. "Then we'll use a crane to remove the containers and take them to a new pool," he says.

Even Japan's nuclear watchdog is urging TEPCO to exercise the utmost caution, with the chief of the Nuclear Regulation Authority telling the company's president this week to proceed very carefully - warning that if TEPCO hits a problem the risks will grow.

TEPCO's Yoshimi Hitosugi has told the ABC that engineers have reinforced the shattered building, propped up the fuel pool, and installed a new crane. He says there's nothing to worry about.

(Yoshimi Hitosugi speaking Japanese)

"We believe it's not dangerous," he says. "The reactor building is structurally sound. We don't believe there'll be any accident," he adds.

This is by far the most complex and dangerous phase of the Fukushima decommissioning so far, and it's a test of TEPCO's technical prowess ahead of what will be an even more challenging task in the years to come: removing the piles of nuclear fuel at the bottom of reactors one, two, and three.

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